Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-10-08

there one day, he found the cartwright
and his family freezing for the lack OF
any fuel st. Sebald ordered the man
to go out and break the icicles from
and the icicles were brought into the house,
and thrown on the hearth, and they began
to blaze Immediately, and the freezing family
gathered around and were warmed by them.
That vas legend; but how often have our
guests come in to gather up the cold, freezing
sorrows Of our life, kindling them into illuml-
nation, and warmth. and good cheer de
who opens his house to Christian hopitality,
turns those VIII are strangers into friends.
Years will 60 by, and there will be great
changes in you, and there will be great
changes in them. Some day you Will DC slt
ting in loneliness, watching bereavement,
and you will get letter in q strange hand
writing, and you will look at the post-ot1ce
mark, and say: "Why, don't know anybody
living in that city;" and you will break the
envelope, and there you. will read the story
of thanks for your Christian generosity long
years before, and how they have heard afaf
of of your trouble. And the letter will be SO
full Of kindly "reminiscences and Christian
coincidence it will be plaster large enough
to cover up all the deep gashes OF your soul.
When we take people into our houses as Chris
tian guests, we take them into our sympatnles
tor ever In bort, Holland, a soldier with
sword at his side stopped at house, desiring
lodging and shelter. The woman OF the house
at first refused admittance, saying that the
men of the house were not at home; but when
he showed his credentials that he had been
honorably discharged from the army, he was
admitted and tarried during the night. In
the night time there was knocking at the
front door, and two ruffians broke in to de-
spoil that household. No sooner had they
come over the door-sil than the armed guest,
who had primed his piece and charged it
with slugs, met them, and telling the woman
to stand back, am happy to say, dropped
the two assaulting desperadoes dead at his
feet. Well, now there are no bandits proving
around to destroy our houses; but how often
it is that we find those that have been our
guests become our defenders. We gave them
shelter first, and then afterwards in the great
conflicts of life they fought for our repu-
tation; they fought for our property; they
fought for our soul.
Another reward that comes from Christian
hospitality is in the assurance that we shall
have hospitality shown to us and to ours. In
the up-turnings of this life, who knows In
what city or what land we may be thrown,
and how much we may nee an open doorf
There may come no sucn crisis to us, but our
children may be thrown into some such
strait He who is in Christian manner hos
pitable has q free pass through all Chrlsten-
dom. 1t may be that you will have been
dead fifty years before any such stress shall
come upon one of your descendants; but DO
YOU not suppose that God can remember
fifty years? And the knuckle of tho grand
child will be heard against the door OF some
stranger, and that door will opan and 1T VIII
be talked over in heaven, and it will be said:
THAT mans grandfather, fifty years ago,
gave shelter to stranger, and now
strangers door is open for grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining and
being entertained, they take a piece of lead
and cut it in two and the host takes one-balf
of the piece of lead and the guest the other
half as they part These two pieces of lead
are handed down from generation to genera
ton. and from family to family; and after
awhile perhaps one OF the families In want or
in trouble go out with this one piece of lead
and find the other family with the CORE
spending piece of lead, and no sooner is the
tally completed than the Old hospitality is
aroused, and eternal friendship pledged. 30
the memory of Christian hospitality will go
down from generation to generation, and
from family to family, and the tally will
never be lost, neither in this world nor the
world to come.
Mark this: the day will come when we will
all be turned of-doors without any ex-
experimentation bare-head, no water in
the canteen, no bread in the haversack, and
we will go in that way into the future world.
And l wonder if eternal Inequalities will
open before us, and if we will be received
into everlasting habitations? Francis Fres-
merciful and very hospitable One day an
Englishman by the name of Thomas Crom-
well appeared at his door asking for
shelter and aims, which were cheerfully
rendered. Frescobald afterward lost all his
property. became very poor, and wandered
up into England; and one day he saw pro-
cession passing, an loi it was the Lord Chan
cellor of England; and lol the Lord Chancel-
lor of England was Thomas Cromwell, the
very man whom he had once befriended in
Italy The Lord Chancellor at the first glance
of Frescobald, recognized him, and dis
mounted from bis carriage, threw his arms
around him, embraced him paid his debts,
invited him to his house, and said:
Here are ten pieces of money to pay for the
bread you gave me, and here are ten pie,e5 of
money to provide for the horse you loaned
me, and here are four bags, in each of which
are four hundred ducats. Take them and be
well So It will be at last with us. Ii we
entertain Christ in the person of His disciples
in this world, when we pass up into the next
country, we will meet Christ in q regal pro-
cession, and He will pour all the wealth
Of heaven into our lap, and open before
us everlasting Inequalities. And o, how
tame are the richest entertainments we can
give on earth compared with the regal mu-
niicence which Christ will display before our
souls in heaven ! was reading the account
which Thomas Fuller gives OF the entertain
ment provided by George Neville. Among
other things for that banquet they had three
hundred quarters OF wheat, one hundred and
four tuns Of wine, eighty oxen, three thou
sand capons, two hundred cranes, two hun
dred kids, four thousand pigeons, four thou
sand rabbits, two hundred and four btterns,
two hundred pheasants, five hundred
partridges, four hundred plover, one
hundred quail, one hundred curlews, fifteen
hundred hot pasties, four thousand cold ven
ison pasties, four thousand ciistards--the Earl
of Warwick acting as steward-and servitors
one thousand. o, what a grand feast was
that But then compare it with the provision
which God has made for us on high: that
great banquet hour; the one hundred and
forty and four thousand guests; all the harps
and trumpets of heaven as the orchestra; the
vintage OF the celestial hills poured into the
tankards; all the fruits Of the orchards of
God piled on the golden platters; the. angels
OF the Lord for cup-bearers, and the once
folded starry banner Of the blue sky flung
out over the scene, while seated at the head
of the table shall be the One who eighteen
centuries ago declared: II was stranger
and ye took Ne in" Our sins pardoned,
NAV we all mineie in those hospitalitiesl